After their third game of the season, the Robinson Volleyball team added yet another win to bounce back from their loss in the first game of the season. This past Tuesday, the Knights went head to head with the Chamberlain Chiefs.

Starting off the first set, the Chiefs earn the first point, but the Lady Knights surpass that as the score reaches 8-1 less than ten minutes later. One of  Robinson’s setters, Jill Tanke (’21), starts the game with a topspin serve.  At about ten minutes into the game, the Lady Knights won the first set.

To Chamberlain’s disadvantage, Robinson races ahead in the second set.  By 7:35 pm, the Knights push to the top with a score of 12-3. A common strength seen throughout Robinson is the striking, like with Madison Williams (’23), a setter. Within less than five minutes, Robinson lead with a 23-4, winning the second set.

“Olivia Van Zandt did really well out there,” said Bella Horiszny (’22), a Robinson defense specialist. Olivia Van Zandt (’21) is another defense specialist on the team.

Defensive specialists (D/S) are players who substitute in for any player, and theoretically, play any position on the court. They’re allowed to attack (either front or back row). Players are considered D/S because they typically substitute for a less-skilled back row player that’s rotating from front row to back. Any single D/S substitution counts as one substitution.

“I think we worked well as a team. I think we could try to do more free ball plays,” Van Zandt said.

Free ball plays are when the ball is returned using a pass rather than a strike. “Free-ball” is called out by the receiving team as a way to indicate all players to move back into serve receive positions, where they should be ready to quickly pass or attack.

“We did well, going into the game we talked about making sure we’re working on fundamentals and doing what we’re supposed to on our side of the net, making sure we’re walking out of the gym better than we went in”, said Kylee Gorngpratum, head coach of the Robinson Volleyball team.

Gorngpratum serves as the head coach along with the assistant coaches, Josh Saunders and Arnoldo Abreu.

“I think they did really good, I guess we could just work on communicating a little bit better”, Gorngpratum said.

Robinson continued to the third game as they score 19-0 by 7:50 pm. The Chiefs then scored their first point of the third set, but it did little as the Lady Knights scored 23-1. Robinson won the last set as well as their game against Chamberlain.

The next Robinson High School Volleyball game has yet to be determined due to weather conditions.

Photo Jennifer Le
Setter Jill Tanke (’21) jumping to make a pass to a teammate.